I thought I’d write this guide because I’ve received a lot of emails from people who have visited my blog, saying their hair doesn’t seem to grow past a certain length, no matter what they do. OK there’s a good reason for that and I’m going to tell you how to get past it.
I know from harsh experience why hair doesn’t grow past a certain length and I know how to to get it growing again. When I started badly losing my hair several years back, my hair got thinner but I also noticed the hair at the front of my scalp just stopped growing past a few inches in length.
Now, I know many of the people who have emailed me have much longer hair than that and they are struggling to grow their hair past shoulder length or perhaps even as long as elbow length, but the same thing that has saved my hair can get yours growing longer, faster and healthier.
But before I get into the details of how to force hair growth, we need to go over a few best practices that you need to be following routinely.
The three step approach to growing longer hair…
The key ingredients of growing longer hair are as follows:
- Protect your hair from split ends
- Feed your hair
- Keep your stress levels low
OK, let’s get started.
Protect your hair from split ends
First off, hair grows about half an inch per month on average. So if your hair is twenty inches long, it’s over three years old at the ends. In that time you may have brushed those ends two and half thousand times. Every time you’ve used heat on your hair, or been swimming it can cause a little damage to those ends, which is actually protein loss (tiny fragments of hair are broken away and lost). A study conducted in 2003 (Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage), provides details on protein loss as a result of brushing and combing.
Anyway the crux of it is that hair is susceptible to damage; not just from brushing, but from wind, rain, exercise, sun exposure, even sleeping in the wrong position! All of this protein loss (hair damage), eventually causes split ends. Once your hair has split you’re done for, it won’t grow past that length, without being wispy and frail.
Next, learn how to protect your hair from split ends…
How to protect your hair from damage and split ends
1. Don’t brush your hair when it’s wet
Hair is most susceptible to damage when it’s wet. So brushing when wet will cause more split ends. In fact, brushing your hair when it’s dry will do hardly any damage at all. So making sure your hair is dry is the key factor to brushing.
2. Don’t use heat on your hair
I know straighteners, crimpers and curlers are all the rage, but resist the temptation to use these products every day (or even at all if you can help it). The best way to have beautiful, healthy looking hair, is to have beautiful healthy hair! Not to make it look shiny with heat but to actually make your hair healthy – we’ll get on to how to do that in a minute.
If you really have to use hair dryers and heated metal, make sure you protect your hair first with a quality heat protection product that coats the hair.
Next: how to protect your hair all through the day…
Hey! My hair is really dry and damaged. It has split ends, but I really don’t want to go to the salon because they always end up ruining my hair. I use oil treatment everyday. I always apply oil to my hair before I go to bed and then wash it off the next morning. I don’t see any growth in my hair but I really want it to grow longer..I was hoping if you have any tips?
Hi Anna,
Thanks for your comment. I would start by doing two things:
Essentially, what this two step process does is nourish your hair with massive amounts of the ‘building blocks’ it needs to grow. The more building blocks you put in, the more your hair will grow. This also helps make your hair thicker and shinier.
I hope that helps.
All the best,
Chris
I m suffering frm severe hairfall. .200 and more thn dat in a day..I m vry tense
I have medium hair length. I use my straightner every morning. I wash my hair every other day and I use very little conditioner on the ends of my hair. I don’t brush my hair when its wet like everyone says. But I haven’t seen any growth. Any tips to help it grow longer at home?
Stop straightening your hair every day. Too much heat is no good. Deep condition and use a leave in conditioner before heat styling. Straighten and then wrap your hair to maintain straight effect. Try not to straighten more than once weekly.
Also consider a hairstyle that doesn’t require heat
Good luck.
rachel,
STOP STRAIGHTENING YOUR EVERY MORNING AND USE MORE CONDITIONER
Doing headstands and massaging your scalp vigorously for a few minutes a day will increase bloodflow. Even better to add rosemary oil to your oil treatment and massage that into the scalp for a few minutes in the evening and wash off after an hour or so OR leave on overnight. Guaranteed to make a difference, rosemary is excellent for hair.
hi,
before a pair of year my hair was too much strong & thicker but now my hemoglobin level decreased and stress level have increased. so, my hair becomes thin and my doctor told me to cut my hair & i did so as required now i want my hair back please solve my problem.and i am under treatment so i would not be able to use your products plz tell natural therapy to grow my hair.
I used to have very long hair until one bad hair salon cut most of it off by accident. Its been 3 years now and my hair has only grown maybe 1/3 of what my old length used to be. Then I dyed my hair as ombre 2 times and I have been trying different oil masks (they give me dandruff), I eat all the right healthy foods daily for hair growth and health in general, and i even use growing shampoo or horse shampoo. my hair is thick, frizzy and poofy but i just want it to be way longer, not frizzy and more manageable. I have not seen many results and i was wondering if you have any tips.
my hair doesn’t seem to grow anymore
Omg! This actually works! Thank you for that information! In just one week, my hair grew 3 and 1/2 inches! I love these tips! It helped alot! 🙂 Very thankful 🙂